Last Tuesday, the European Commission published the 2018 edition of its Education and Training Monitor, a set of statistical and other indicators that compare aspects of education in EU countries. The health warning is that, like all numbers, they can only tell us part of the story. Still, it’s a part that’s worth saying something about.
The drift is that, if we’re dazzlingly L-Aqwa fl-Ewropa on all other counts, we certainly are nothing of the sort as far as the small matter of education is concerned. Quite the contrary, in fact. The Monitor report is one depressing read, and there’s an undercurrent that suggests that the rot is not a straightforward issue of an under-performing minister, bad teaching or shortage of resources.
There are one or two exceptions. The report raises questions about the standards of higher education, for example. It turns out that the guilty party is the American University of Malta, about which the less said the better. In that case, the problem was clearly one of bad decision-making by government and its Commission for Higher Education.
Back to the really insidious bit. The report finds that 15-year-olds in Malta are very bad at reading, science and maths, in that order. The figures are staggering. For reading, the percentage of underachievers is almost double the EU average. More than a third of 15-year-olds have to make do with reading skills that are not up to standard.
The number of young people aged 18 to 24 who leave the education system entirely is very high, and almost double the EU average. As the report puts it, “Malta’s workforce remains relatively low qualified… Malta has the highest proportion of low-qualified adults in the EU”.
So far so dismal, but some of the Monitor’s findings suggest something more complex than plain all-round disaster. First, the very young people who have difficulty reading seem to be very good at getting jobs. The employment rate of recent graduates is much higher than the EU average. A low-qualified workforce, then, but one that actually works.
Second, the standard of early childhood education in Malta is very high. The picture that emerges is of young children who enjoy excellent schooling, who then go on to struggle with reading, maths, and science (I wonder what’s left) in their teens, and who eventually make it into the job market without any trouble whatsoever.
Somewhere between their early childhood and late teens, young people in Malta find themselves distracted from what some call the liberal arts
Third, it’s not as if nothing is being done about the areas of poor performance. Throwing money at problems and all that, but Malta invests heavily in education. The public expenditure on education as a percentage of the GDP is higher than the EU average. It is also fair to say that, on almost all indicators, there has been a small improvement since 2014.
Which is why I think it would be wrong to put it down to a comatose minister, understocked school libraries, or lousy teaching. Quite the contrary, in fact: schoolchildren in Malta seem to be in trouble in spite of, not because of, a generally sound education system.
There are some clues we might follow. There isn’t necessarily a contradiction between high employability and early school leaving. It’s possible that young people in Malta choose not to remain students for long, simply because it is easy for them to find employment.
Then again, in Italy, where the employment rate of recent graduates is 55 per cent (to Malta’s 95 per cent), the percentage of early leavers is anyway higher than the EU average. Besides, the young Maltese people who can’t read properly, but find jobs, seem to go on to earn good money, probably also because they are flexible and willing to exploit themselves.
Spirit of enterprise? Possibly. Reminds me of a conversation I once had with a professor of education, who told me that our system was geared to making entrepreneurs – by which he meant not just businesspeople and such, but a broad ‘indawru lira’ (making a buck) mindset. Nothing the matter with that, except it seems to produce casualties. Thus the poor reading skills.
The argument ties in with the findings of the Monitor. Somewhere between their early childhood and late teens, young people in Malta find themselves distracted from what some call the liberal arts. They simply don’t have the time or inclination to read a book or marvel at a butterfly’s wings.
I see this in my work at University. Every year I have students who seem to be working hard at putting something past them, rather than building on it. Some of them manage, at times brilliantly so.
That something is not bad teaching in secondary school. In fact, it may have very little to do with schools at all. It’s a general culture of pushiness towards enterprise, a savagely aspirational mindset that leaves children with neither the time nor the energy to pursue their interests and develop skills like reading and scientific curiosity.
It doesn’t help that the typical 12-year-old spends a mind-numbing couple of hours a day cooped up in a school van, or that things like silence, stability and open space are largely unknown quantities.
Little wonder, then, that the Monitor reports heavy expenditure and small progress. It’s a case of massive effort in the face of huge difficulties, with tiny dividends. Shall we call it a nation of high-earning semi-literates?
mafalzon@hotmail.com
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece